When I got my PhD, it was a time when there were just no jobs for PhDs. Period. PhDs were getting the lowest paid technician jobs, if they were lucky, in any kind of science.

Both to and from Mir Shannon Lucid travelled on Space Shuttle Atlantis launching on STS-76 and returning on STS-79. Lucid's first space flight was in June 1985 on Space Shuttle Discovery's mission STS-51-G. In addition they performed 16 engineering tests aboard the Orbiter Columbia and 20 Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project experiments.

At one time Shannon Lucid held the record for the longest duration stay in space by an American as well as by a woman. She has flown in space five times including a prolonged mission aboard the Mir space station.